Put it together

STRAIGHT FOR THE GUT: Furies Delta 4/24

Over at Agora de la Danse (840 Cherrier), four choreographers each have 20 minutes and two dancers to interpret the theme of departure in Puzzle Danse, a France-Quebec exchange.

Local choreographer Estelle Clareton, one of the four, says she felt right at home with her choreographic homework: “I started creating in 1995 and when I look back, there’s always the theme of separation and wanting to be with another, but not being able to stay.” Her contribution, Furies Delta 4/24, zooms in on a relationship between a man and woman whose interactions turn into a fiery duel and eventually end in separation. Straying from her signature theatrical approach, Clareton says she’s working more on creating abstract shapes with bodies in space with dancers Dominic Caron and Elinor Fueter.

Other parts of the picture see O Vertigo’s Ginette Laurin unite fragmented images of separation, while French choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta and Sri Lankan Isira Makuloluwe use specific stories as starting points. The pieces fall into place nightly at 8 p.m. until Feb. 3.

—Marites Carino

Art 101 who’s who

OF MINDS OF MEN:
Rembrant’s Self-portrait With Saskia”

What could be better on a cold winter’s day than heading over to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for some quality time with Rembrandt and friends? The current exhibition Impressions of Humanity is always free and the list of artists reads like a who’s who from Art 101: Dürer, Edvard Munch, Gauguin, Daumier and many more, alongside some of my contemporary favourites like Jim Dine and David Hockney.

The prints come from the collection of Montrealers Freda and Irwin Browns, who have decided to permanently donate these works to the museum. The catalogue states the prints, “focus on women as inspiration,” which means they are predominantly images of women as seen through the eyes of men. This was my only regret when seeing this show—that more of women’s “impressions of humanity” were not on view. The few that were included showed how much richer this already priceless collection of works could have been. “Romance,” by Marie Laurencin, presents women differently than say, Picasso. While three self-portraits by Käthe Kollwitz show a psychological depth missing from many of the other female portraits. The series of self–portraits by Rembrandt are also amongst the many highlights. Gender gap aside, see this exhibition—it is pure visual pleasure.

—Christine Redfern

SOS for 303

If you’re at all plugged into the Montreal dance scene, you’ve no doubt hiked up the stairs of the Belgo Building to Studio 303 (372 Ste-Catherine W., #303). Mid-January, administrators of the alternative dance space announced that as of April 1, they are suspending programming for three months because of a lack of funding. This means the unfortunate cancellation of two Vernissage-danse events, a residency, a video screening and much more.
“I’d say morale is still pretty high for some reason,” says associate director Lys Stevens. “I think Studio 303 has been through its fair share of hard times, so it doesn’t phase us too much. Also it feels good to be taking a stand.” Stevens also says, in their 18 years of existence, they’ve cancelled events and laid off staff, but never done anything as drastic as this. Since the announcement, Stevens says words of encouragement have been pouring into the office. “We’ve got a growing pile of support letters and the more we’ve got, the stronger a case it is.” To add yours to the stack they’ll use in their continued quest for funding, send to info@studio303.ca

—Marites Carino

Mothercorp combat

When the producers of this year’s Montreal Poetry Face Off, a part of the Festival Voix d’Amériques, couldn’t corral every previous year’s winner for an “all-star” event, they decided to take a different tack, a “Face Off Soapbox” on the theme “Made in Canada.”

“We thought it would be fun to open things up to prose a little more than just strictly poetry,” says CBC producer Sarah Gilbert. “We took our inspiration from the French language Voix d’Amériques event Combat contre la langue de bois. It’s not necessarily poetry people—in the Voix schedule there are radio hosts, writers and a city planner.”
Refereed by CBC 5 à 6 host Patti Schmidt, the Soapbox audience will vote on performances by Face Off laureats Endre Farkas and David McGimpsey, spoken word firecrackers Kyra Shaughnessy and Taqralik Partridge, and comic wild card Jason Whiting. Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 5 p.m. at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent), free.

—Vincent Tinguely

Is it art?

YOU TUBE TOO: Add another fun online diversion to the pile. This one involves, virtually, a blank piece of paper, a paintbrush and your art skills. And the cool thing about art.com’s ArtPad is that when you’re finished, you just select a frame and click “save and send,” to upload your masterpiece for others’ perusal. The Flash-driven program is clean, simple, and fun enough to distract even the most artistically disinclined. Dip in at http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/.

Arts hole

COZY UP: Eco-frip la Gaillarde (4019 Notre-Dame W., metro St-Henri) invites you to mingle amidst 15 masked beauties showcasing its new collection of goods at the Jewellery Masquerade, this Saturday, Feb. 3

, at 7 p.m. The free event also features food from the Itsi-Bitsi Bakery, fair-trade hot chocolate, Chai teas from Équita and music from the Sweet Singers.
• SOWING STAGE SEEDS: Montreal’s annual GLBT performing arts festival, Harvest, is now accepting applications for this fall’s edition. The deadline is April 1—stay tuned to www.villagescene.com for all the details.

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